Solar Peak Power Point Tracker
San Fat Lei Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering University of Queensland
is by the conventional analog design, and the other is the new digital method. A digital approach will experience an advantage of flexible and expansibility[3].
Abstract
Besides fossil fuels, solar power is one of our most important alternative sources of energy. Extensive studies on photovoltaic systems have been carried out in order to make solar energy more efficient, cost effective and secure. One major way to extract solar energy is by photovoltaic array. However, photovoltaic array is a kind of unstable form of power source, whose power output varies with different environmental condition. A Peak Power Point Tracker (PPPT) is a device which can extract the most out of the PV array. The purpose of this project will be designing and building peak power point tracking device. Series of intensive testing and analysis was carried in order to optimise the potential and efficiency of a PPPT. The low cost PPPT implemented here consisted of a step up dc-dc converter, optimised for a nominal input of 40.586W and a 24V Lead-Acid battery as a load. A PIC16C73A microprocessor is employed as a control unit. With appropriate design and implementation, a PPPT with efficiency as high as 97% could be achieved.
3 Control
Several ways of handling the parameters and controlling the behaviour of the PPPT is available[2]~[5], . A Method call Perturb and Observe is applied in this project. A input parameter, called D, the duty ratio of the PWM is the perturbation and a change in output current is observe. A power feedback control is utilised. Since the load is a battery, therefore the output voltage will be fairly constant[4],. As a result, the current alone is observed at the output.
1 Introduction
Photovoltaic (PV) array enables us to extract the robust and renewable energy from the sun. However the current-voltage and power characteristics of a PV array varies with the meteorological conditions such as insolation level, cell temperature as well as loading of the cell. Figure 1 illustrates the variation in the output of a PV panel. A PPPT is a device specifically designed for matching the PV array to load as to optimise the power transfer from the source to the load. Studies shown that with a highly efficient PPPT installed, up to 30% of cost reduction of can be introduced. [6]
Fig 1. P-v &I-v charateristics [6]
L
C Solar Panel
Load
Pulse Train
Fig2. Boost Converter
4 Implementation and Measurement
Figure 2 shows a typical connection of a boost converter. The gate voltage of the MOSFET is provide by the PWM timer of the PIC16C73A. The chip has been programmed with a Perturb and Observe type of algorithm. Testing have been done with the boost converter connected to the microcontroller. However, the system has failed to work. Another set of testing were done, with the PWM being generated by the function generator in the
2 Specification and Approach
Dc-dc converters are usually applied in PPPT for matching the array to the load. A boost converter is utilised here. A boost converter is a type of switched mode regulators which by varying the duty ratio of a PWM, the output voltage can be adjusted. The PWM will have to be generated by a control unit. There are two ways to aproach the design of the control unit. One
Solar Peak Power Point Tracker
laboratory. Testing have been done to investigate charateristics of the boost converter against several parameters: 1) Efficiency vs switching frequency 2) Switching frequency vs conduction losses
1999
Due to limitation of PIC chip, a 78.12kHz is used. The efficiency of the converter is only 89.24% when simulated.
Acknowledgment 5 Results and Discussion
The reason for the operation of the program to fail is due to several bugs in the program. One of the biggest problems is on the operation mechanism of the program. A prefixed value is used to compare the currren level with. When the current level is below that preset value. The last duty cycle which produce maximum current is loaded into memory again. However, under low light intensity, there may be a chance that the current never exceeds that level. As a result the program may be trapped around that loop forever. Testing were conducted and the following results were obtained.
Efficiency as frequency changes 1 0.98 0.96 0.94 0.92 0.9 0.88 0.86 0 50 Frequency 100 150
I would like to thank my mum, for her tireless support, both finially and spiritually. I would also like to take this opportuntiy to thank my supervisor, Dr Geoffrey R. Walker and Mr Peter Allen, for their valuable support and guidance
References
[1] Fook Meng Fan, University of Queensland, Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) dcdc converter for solar panels Parag Bhide & S.R. Bhat, Modular power conditioning unit for photovoltaic applications Inpesc 92 Record, v2, pg 709 713,1992 Fumihiko Umeda, Masato H. Ohsato, Gunji Kimura, Mitsuo Shioya, New control method of resonant dc-dc converter in small scaled photovoltaic system, Inpesc, 92 Record, v2, pg 714-718. Charles [Link], Matthew [Link], A High-Efficiency Maximum Power Point Tracker for Photovoltaic Arrays in a Solar Powered Race Vehicle, PESC93 Cung-Yuen Won, Duk-Heon Kim, Sei-chan Kim, Won-Sam Kim, hack_Sung Kim, A New Maximum Power Point Tracker of Photovoltaic Arrays Using Fuzzy Controller, PESC94 SMM Wolf, JHR Enslin, Economical, PV maximum power point Tracking Regulator with Simplistic Controller PESC93
[2]
[3]
Effiency
[4]
[5]
Fig.4. Frequency vs Efficiency Figure 4 shows the frequency at which a boost converter perform highest efficiency will be at 100kHz.
Inductor power loss 0.12 Power loss (W) 0.1 0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0 0 50 100 150 Frequency (kHz)
[6]
Biography
San Fat Lei was born in Macau in 1976. He is currently doing his Bachelor of Engineering degree in University of Queensland. He is interested in power electronics and computer technology.
As a result to frequency analysis, the 90kHz to 100kHz region will be the best frequency range at which the gate of the MOSFET be driven at.